


Unbroken

by aretia



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 04:44:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17912243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Staying positive is second nature to Gren, even when he’s trapped in a dungeon. It isn’t until Amaya rescues him and brings him home to recover that he starts to feel the emotional toll of his captivity.





	Unbroken

Gren counted the water stains on the walls of the dungeon. He had counted them so many times that he was also counting the number of times he counted them. This was the fifty-second time, and there were still thirty-eight water stains on the walls. He didn’t know why he expected the number to change, but he always hoped it would, that maybe he had missed one. He would be so excited at the tiniest change to break the monotony of the dungeon, but it was not to be this time. He turned the numbers into a sing-song tune inside his head, trying to put a smile on his face.

He didn’t let any sign of weakness show through his optimistic façade. He didn’t cry, or scream, or call out desperately for someone to help him. Because the only person who might notice he was missing wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway.

Gren heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He raised himself from his sitting position and stood at attention, prepared to greet Viren with all the insincere smiles he could muster. But for once, the person who came around the corner wasn’t Viren. Relief crashed into him with all the force of a tidal wave, knocking the breath out of him.

“Amaya!” he screamed, his voice coming out hoarse from dehydration and disuse. Her eyes met with his and shone with equal relief, but before she approached him, she made the sign for _key_ in the air. Gren tilted his chin towards a desk in the corner of the room.

Gren was lucky that Viren hadn’t bothered to waste his dark magic powers to hide the key from mere ordinary humans, or even put it inside a drawer. Amaya found it lying on top of the desk in seconds, and then rushed over to Gren’s side. 

“ _I’m going to destroy Viren for doing this to you_ ,” Amaya signed to him, clenching the key between her teeth as she made her way across the room. He could see the fire burning behind her dark eyes, and he felt a little intimidated. Gren hoped he never ended up on the business end of her rage.

“I have no doubt that you’re going to make him regret being born,” Gren said. “Now, could you help me out here, please?”

She stood in front of him, close enough that their chests were almost touching, while she reached up and unlocked the manacles.

Gren didn’t care how she had found him, or what she was going to do to Viren. All that mattered was that she was here, and he was going to leave this place. “Thank you for coming to rescue me,” he said.

Amaya took her hands away from the lock momentarily to respond. “ _I couldn’t go on any longer worrying about where you were_ ,” she said. “ _Your beard does look cute, though._ ”

She ran a hand over his cheek, and sure enough, he felt short, coarse hairs bending against her palm. He didn’t know that he had grown stubble, though it wasn’t as if he had looked in a mirror or been able to touch his face. “How long have I been gone?” he asked.

“ _Two weeks_ ,” Amaya replied. Two weeks was a long time, and yet it sounded so short and finite compared to the eternity that it had felt like to him.

Amaya freed one of Gren’s hands, and he let it fall to his side. Pins and needles tingled in his arm as the blood rushed back into it, and he winced. Before she turned her attention to his other hand, Amaya pressed a kiss to his cheek. It sent a ray of warmth spreading through his cold, aching body.

At last, Amaya released his other hand from confinement, and he tumbled forward into her arms. She caught him, and helped prop him back up on his feet. Now that his hands were free, he tried to sign to her, a simple _thank you_ , but the cramp that seized his arm made it impossible. He let out a groan, and grabbed his wrist with his other hand, rubbing the raw, chafed skin where the cuffs had held him. “It hurts to move my arms. I don’t think I can sign right now,” Gren said. 

“ _It’s okay_ ,” Amaya said. “ _We need to hurry. Can you walk?_ ”

Gren leaned his hand against the wall, and took one steady step. The second one wavered a little, and by the time he took a third step, his legs buckled underneath him and he collapsed to his knees. “I’m fine, I can make it,” he insisted with a forced smile, though he was sure he didn’t look very convincing, crumpled on the ground.

Amaya was not convinced. She kneeled down beside him, and in one swift movement, slipped her arms under his back and knees and hoisted him up. Never a day went by when Gren wasn’t amazed by Amaya’s strength, but never was he more awestruck than when she carried him in his arms like he weighed nothing. He leaned his head against her shoulder as she climbed up the stairs. Her other soldiers flanked her as they emerged from the corridor, guarding her as they made their way out of the castle.

Amaya couldn’t sign to him, since her arms were supporting him, but her eyes conveyed a message so clear that she didn’t need words. _You’re safe. I’ve got you. You can rest now._ Cradled in her arms, he felt protected, and he allowed himself to close his eyes for just a moment.

 

~

 

When Gren awoke, the first sensation he felt was _warmth_. After so long on a cold dungeon floor, he was almost used to shivering to keep himself warm, but now he was cozy under a heavy pile of blankets. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, and found himself in a familiar setting, in Amaya’s bed. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had almost worried that the rescue had been a dream, but the pain searing through his body reminded him that he was most certainly awake. The pain was more piercing now, making itself known in spasms, rather than the constant dull ache that he had learned to tune out while he was in captivity.

Amaya leaned over him, sitting next to him on the bed. “ _How are you feeling?_ ” she signed to him.

“Everything hurts,” Gren rasped out, his voice sounding even more hoarse than before. His throat was so dry that he burst into a coughing fit after attempting to speak.

“ _Here. Drink some water_.” Amaya leaned over to the table beside the bed and picked up a glass of water. She helped prop Gren up against the pillows at the head of the bed, and handed him the glass. He was eager to prove that he could do at least one thing himself, but he was dismayed to find that he was still too weak. His hand shook as he tried to grasp it, and he splashed some water onto his shirt.

“I’m sorry…” Gren mumbled, as Amaya took the glass from his hand.

“ _No need to apologize_ ,” she assured him. She cupped his chin in her hand, and then tilted the glass to his lips. He drank the whole glass in a few gulps. The water that he had gotten on rare occasions in the dungeon always tasted musty, so the crisp, cool water in his mouth felt like heaven. He caught his breath after he finished it, and Amaya rubbed her thumb against his cheek, wiping a stray drop of water from the corner of his mouth. She took the glass and set it down on the table, and Gren settled back into the bed.

“Why are you being so gentle with me?” Gren asked, his voice cracking with a barely stifled sob. He spoke in a whisper, trying not to strain his throat when Amaya was only reading his lips anyway. “I let you down. I failed the mission.”

“ _You didn’t fail. You were captured, and you endured terrible torture, and your smile never faltered through it all_ ,” said Amaya. “ _I would call that strength_.”

She didn’t treat him like he was fragile, like she was wary of breaking him. Her hands didn’t shy away from touching him, and he was grateful for that simple comfort. Her fingers combing through his hair grounded him. 

At the same time, she didn’t judge him for any expression of weakness. The wall of positivity that he had built up around his emotions finally started to crumble from her gentle touches. She gave him a place where it was safe to break, and he fell apart in her hands.

Gren sniffled, which quickly turned into full-blown sobbing. Tears rolled down his cheeks as pathetic whimpers escaped from his throat. “It hurts so much,” he cried. “I missed you so much.”

Amaya leaned down, brushed the hair away from his face, and kissed him on the forehead. She wiped away the tears from his eyes so that he could see what she was signing to him. “ _I missed you too. But you’re here now. You made it back to me._ ”

“You’re the one who saved me,” said Gren.

“ _Yes, but you’re the one who survived_ ,” she said. There were tears in her eyes too; it hurt her to see him like this, and Gren wished that he didn’t have to put her through that. “ _I’m sorry that it took me so long to find you. But even after going through all that pain, you didn’t break. I know that nothing could ever break your spirit, Gren_.”

The tears stopped flowing, and he blinked up at her in admiration. He believed her. Now that she was here, holding the pieces of him together, he didn’t feel broken. He was bruised, aching, and exhausted, but not broken.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to shiroganetakashi/burrsir and melodiouswanderer for helping me out with this when I wasn't sure what to do. You are great friends! <3


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